The set up of this film seems simple and silly enough. On a planet
a thousand years more technologically advanced than Earth, the entire population
is male clones with no sex organs, no emotions, and nothing better to do
than conquer the Universe. Their technique--though it's never explained--involves
impregnating a woman on the planet they wish to take over. So their
leader, Graydon--played by Ben Kingsley in a nice turn--instructs them
in the fine art of seducing an Earth woman, which to their minds mainly
consists of complimenting her hair and shoes. Their quickest learner, H1449-6
(Gary Shandling), is chosen to perform the deed and is whisked to Earth
where he is deposited in the lavatory of a passenger jet. The disruption
this causes the flight brings him to the attention of an NTSB inspector
(John Goodman). But he is able to rapidly establish himself in a
job as Harold Anderson, bank loan officer, and, thanks to the womanizing
connivance of a co-worker (Greg Kinnear), he's soon romancing a recovering
alcoholic, Susan Hart (Annette Benning), who they meet at an AA meeting
where they've gone to scam babes. And so we have the basic dramatic
tension of the film: Will Harold be discovered before he can complete his
mission?

The film gets to this point mostly on the strength of battle-of-the-sexes
humor and some physical comedy involving the mechanical penis that Shandling's
character has had attached to enable him to complete his mission.
It continues in this vein through the early portion of Harold's relationship
with Susan, but when he ends up having to marry her to get her to bear
his child the inevitable humanizing takes place and a more serious message
starts to peak out from beneath the more sophomoric sex comedy and the
unfortunately disjointed story line. This initial message concerns
the utter emptiness of the modern mating game, which is all about sex and
only peripherally, if at all, about meaningful interaction between two
people. By the end--when Harold realizes that Graydon won't let Susan
keep their baby and that the experience of love, loyalty, sex, death, and
all the rest that makes us human is superior to the supposedly advanced
bioengineered culture of his home world--it's become very much a political
film, whether intentionally or no. It comes down so firmly on the
side of humanity as it is, with all our glorious and maddening imperfections,
and against the vision of a future that is perfect but soulless, that regardless
of an over reliance on genitalia jokes it ends up being a profoundly conservative
movie, and a pretty funny one at that.